Shades of autumn in the September garden

So, September is come, and the evenings already feel shorter and more like autumn.  My apples seem to have fallen off of their own accord, but  the Bloody Ploughman I picked up off the ground and had at lunchtime was pretty good.

What else is doing well at the moment ? Lazy Housewife beans from real Seeds is looking very happy, lots of growth and the pods, despite having fairly swollen beans inside, remain tender as can be.  The sweetcorn is looking fantastic too, really good fill to the cobs.  Still got plenty of tomatoes and chillies, enough cucumbers and courgettes probably turning too marrows (not been to the lotty for a few days).

Yes, it seems to be suddenly colder, which is a shock to the system - the sort of weather where yo need to wear socks, and even think about some sort of heating. I was rather hoping for an extension on the warmth, as I still have a few tomatoes growing in the greenhouse. I'm also picking autumn raspberries (the ones I uprooted five years ago!!) - I'm hoping they go on for a bit as my sister is visiting from Australia at the end of the month. She loves raspberries, but she says it's just too warm for them in Perth - they can't grow them or import them.

According to an agricultural dealer I know in Australia, it is fast heading too hot and dry in many parts of Australia to grow even wheat ! They are drilling on row spacings of up to 1 metre (in the U.K. it is commonly 125mm), and creating a depression around the row to retain moisture. Pretty desperate strategies. He also told me of cattle farmers having to reduce their livestock levels because they can't afford the grain for feed. And I thought I could use more rain over here in the East of England !

Yeay, four out of five of my winter salads have germinated - still time for the lettuce to put in an appearance.

My harvest this morning has been two eggs from my three 'new' chickens. Picked them up yesterday from BHWT rehoming. They found their way into the coop at bedtime and are currently sunning themselves.

I've had to accept that the two hens I've got are not going to lay. Ginger is too old (at six years old) and the last egg she laid was so large that I would be worried if she laid any more. Dot is one of the two speckledys I bought a year ago, neither of whioch really laid anything significant. The one which did lay the occasional rather pathetic egg had to be put down in July, and I'm left with Dot, who is a lovely friendly hen but just doesn't lay. Never mind, they keep the slugs down and keep my company in the garden. When Ginger is no more I will get two more hens, but I don't think I'll buy any more speckledys.

Dandelion, if you want some reliable layers I can recommend Leghorns. I've had Exchequer Leghorns which are very attractive black and white birds.

Thank you Ploshkin. that's very helpful. Are they fairly friendly birds?

I spent a little time watching the garden wildlife this afternoon. The sedums are attracting a lot of bumble bees, and a butterfly I don't know, looks like a bit of leaf with its wings folded, but is an orange colour when open. Also very camera shy ! Our Greek oregano is also popular with the bees

I will have to harvest what's left of my grapes tomorrow, a host of blackbirds are taking them. At least they pick them off whole grape at a time, rather than pecking at all of tgem and leaving the remains to rot.

I walked home from work the long way on Friday, 8 miles. I was struck my how many creatures I could hear rustling in the undergrowth. Has it been a good year for small mammals ?

My sedums are also covered in bees, and a few butterflies - mainly small tortoiseshell.

My main garden activity is clearing. Cut down most of the overgrown shrubbery at top of garden yesterday (variegated holly, rhododendron, euonymous etc) as a start on clearing the area that will be for soft fruit. Some enormous roots to dig out next. Really hoping to get the fruit out of their pots and into the ground before winter sets in.

Did get some compost bins made up on Saturday though. Two bins, each a cubic yard, and there is already a good sized dalek here, so a fair bit of capacity now. I'm going to need it with all the shredding I have to do.

All my winter salads have at least some germination, though lettuce has a poor showing - only three so far. Still, enough (slugs and snails permitting) that we should have some fresh leaves to harvest over winter.

I had a go at sowing some late salads yesterday, direct in the garden veg plot. Under netting as much as anything to keep the neighbour's b****y cat off. I tidied up the greenhouse a bit, took a lot of leaf off the tomatoes to let air and light in.

Apart from that, I re-assembled my garden shredder. It is quiet a pricey Bosch machine, of the quieter, crushing sort. It does seem to have a design flaw; the electronics are under a black plastic panel, and if left in strong direct sun for a long time, they overheat and fail when you turn it on again. It has happened to me once before, fortunately I saved the parts list and circuit diagram I reverse-engineered, and so it was a fairly quick fix. Very glad to have it back, it saves so much stuff to the tidy tip, and boosts composting material a lot.

Sounds similar to my shredder, CH - same manufacturer and type, though mine has a different control panel. Wouldn't be without it. In my other garden it tripled my compost production and pretty much eliminated my need for bonfires. Our entire plot here is surrounded by hedges, so there are going to be plenty of hedge trimmings as well as all the pruning material.

Tomatoes seem to be finishing early this year - my Dad's are too. I gave up on some of mine today, heaved them out, and brought most of the chillies and peppers from outdoors into the greenhouse space freed up.

Some of the pak choi I sowed last weekend are up. They won't have time to make full size I don't think, but should make something edible with the help of cloches.

Agree about tomatoes, CH. There are a few left but not many now.
I did plant some chinese cabbage but it's turned into a feast for 'small white' caterpillars - the chickens have been getting what's left.

My Rose de Berne tomatoes (seed from the seed swap a couple of years back) have been rather in the doldrums since they were planted out but have suddenly come into their own - I have huge crops of huge fruits that are ripening nicely and are delicious.
The cucumbers and courgettes are continuing to fruit apace - I'm actually leaving quite a few to grow big so that the chickens can enjoy them. I've just had my penultimate melon (not quite as tasty as the earlier ones) and I'm harvesting some ripe sweet peppers now. I must remember to plant them away from the polytunnel walls next year as the slugs have been a pain and I've lost quite a few big fruits.
Outdoors, the runner beans have just started procucing useable beans, I've got some decent cabbages for using now plus some winter cabbages and the brussel sprouts are looking good.
Onions and potatoes were a complete waste of space.

I have a strawberry dilemma.
As you know I grow everbearers in baskets in the polytunnel. Currently I have 5 baskets of plants that I have just had a final picking of fruit from (I should say from which I have had .......) but this is the 2nd year of fruiting and the plants have made no runners.
My usual practice is to let the plants do 2 seasons then peg down runners and plant up the baskets with fresh compost and new plants to overwinter outside ready for the next year.

Do I buy new plants or empty out the baskets and replace the old plants in new compost?
What would you do?

Bit of both, I reckon. Buy in some new plants as insurance, but pot on some of the old ones too. And rather than throw away the remainder, maybe find an odd corner for them - you never know, they might decide to make runners next year. Could try picking off all the blossom on a few plants and see if that induces them.

I'm at this stage with my strawberries too. I think I'll take freebird's advice and buy a few new plants. Having a fairly large garden in a mildish area, I use spare strawberry plants for ground cover. If they fruit it's something nice for the birds (or the dogs!)